In the recent business landscape, mergers and acquisitions are a common occurrence. Numerous large corporations and firms plan to buy or acquire other companies with a goal to diversify their business focus or to gain profitability. Keeping this perspective, a Dutch Multi national Consumer Firm Friesland Campina has unveiled plans to acquire a 51% stake in Engro Foods in Pakistan, with a mammoth investment of nearly $460 million.
Friesland Campina international Holding BV (Besloten Vennootschap), through its managers at Citibank Pakistan, has issued a Public Announcement of Intention (PAI) to acquire about 391million voting shares of Engro Corporation in EFOODS. With an investment of around $46o million, the foreign firm is all set to buy Pakistan's largest dairy firm and would complete the entire due application process in the next six to eight months.
Based on the Pakistani firm's present stock value, the deal would bring in at least $460 million and will easily be the biggest private takeover by a foreign firm in the country's history.
Friesland Campina International Holding BV is a Dutch dairy cooperative, formed in 2oo8 as the result of a merger between Royal Friesland Foods and Campina. With offices in 28 countries around the globe, it is one of the top 5dairy companies in the world with an annual revenue of 11.4 billion euro. Meanwhile, Engro Foods Limited, a subsidiary of Engro Corps, is a local food giant and one of the largest listed companies at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX).
The acquistion of Engro would help Friesland gain a footprint in Pakistan, where a growing middle class is buying more processed milk and most people boil the raw liquid before consuming it.
Friesland declined to comment beyond the group's stock exchange announcement.
Shares for Karachi-based Engro Foods and parent Engro Corp. rose by their daily limits of 5% following the announcement.
